Favorite Gardening Websites

Hello Blossoms! I hope you are doing well and your tomatoes are and other plants are looking and tasting delicious! This week I wanted to take some time to introduce you to some of my favorite gardening sites. These are the sites I visit when I need some inspiration or information, and I love them all dearly. I hope you enjoy and I hope you share your favorite gardening sites with me in the comments!

This site is filled to the brim with amazing and entertaining information. I have the biggest gardener’s crush on Margaret Roach and her approach to gardening. She refers to that special something about gardening as “woo-woo” and her description of it fills my heart with the wonder of plants and the earth and that amazing smell and feel of the soil. Her garden is scrumptious, what else would you expect from someone who was the first garden editor of Martha Stewart “Living”. She also compiles monthly gardening chore lists that I do my best to follow….mostly…sometimes….well, I have my client’s follow them…

Here is Willi’s About Page introduction….I think you will quickly see why I am drawn to her blog!

Hi! I’m Willi Galloway. I got the idea for DigginFood while I was harvesting some greens. I was thinking about what I was going to make for dinner and I realized that I read tons of gardening and cooking blogs, but none of them focus on my favorite thing to do: cooking with food fresh from the garden. So I decided to create a site where I could blog about what was happening in my garden and kitchen, share growing guides and recipes for my favorite foods, and tell stories about other people who like to grow and eat real food.

This site is one my clients and I visit together when I’m trying to gauge the style of vegetable gardens that they may want. The photography is beautiful, but the information and the recipes she shares are truly generous and genius. Basil ice cream! Yes, basil ice cream! I’m trying this out this weekend…

Basil Ice Cream – from DigginFood

What you will need…

2 cups whole milk

1 cup basil leaves

½ cup sugar

Pinch of Salt

4 large egg yolks

½ cup well-chilled heavy cream

Heat milk, basil and ¼ cup sugar, with a pinch of salt, in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Once the mixture comes to a boil, remove from the heat and let steep for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour the mixture through a strainer to remove the basil leaves.

With a hand-held mixer, beat the yolks and remaining ¼ cup sugar in a bowl until thick and pale (about 1 minute). Add the milk mixture in a slow stream and beat until combined. Pour mixture into a clean saucepan and cook over moderate heat. Be sure to stir constantly. The mixture will begin to thicken and is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon – this will take around 6 minutes of stirring. Do not let the mixture come to a boil.

Remove from the heat and poor in to a small bowl. Place the bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir until cold, around 12 minutes. (I recommend making the ice bath before you cook the custard over the stove – the custard will cook quickly and, if you don’t cool it down immediately, you risk curdling the mixture).

Stir in the cream and freeze in the ice cream maker. Once frozen, place the ice cream in an airtight container and put in the freezer to harden for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!

Rochelle Greayer is the lovely landscape designer behind this blog. She finds and posts wonderful gardens, new and unique landscaping products and creates lovely inspiration boards, such as the one above. I find myself inspired and rejuvenated after reading her blog, and rarely do I browse away from it without having learned something new!

My dears, I have made no secret of my love and passion for healthy thriving soil. Sadly the earth and its soil are in danger. This movie does a wonderful job of educating, entertaining and inspiring….if you subscribe to Netflix you can watch it immediately. I strongly encourage you to invite your friends and loved one over for a screening & discussion. Their website also lists public screenings…please, please see this movie, talk about it and follow the call to action. Save our soil, save our seeds, save our earth!!

Before I leave you all this week – how ARE your gardens? Let me know if you have any questions or concerns – I am more than happy to help you out, and I know that if one person is having a pest or disease or design problem, then others are too. Bonnie is working on a post with some of the Q&A I’ve already answered for folks….feel free to add more questions! We also answer questions at the Ladybug Landscaping Facebook page!!

Comments

I recognize that woman in the chair up top (tee hee). Thank you for your support and encouragement. Very much appreciated — especially in the hot, dry season when I get a little overwhelmed, and can use the cheering on!

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going home to roost may occasionally include affiliate links or banners in it’s posts. this means that that if you click on an affiliate link and purchase the item, i may receive a small commission on sales. all thoughts, opinions and suggestions are my own and posts are never written by sponsors.